ofi!

"The road is different, but the feeling much the same. I'd really rather be reading a book."

He is so awkward i love him

ignore the formatting issues its formatted fine on the goog doc ! if you choose to read it, please give me feedback on it!! thanks so much mwah ! x!!

Empathy in To Kill a Mockingbird

Anyone who’s been around little kids knows that they can be quite blunt at times, not because they’re mean, but because they don’t know the effect of their words or actions; therefore they also don’t know how to feel empathy. To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age novel set in Alabama during the 1920s and written from the perspective of an eight-year-old girl called Scout. It focuses on not just Scout’s journey, but also her brother Jem’s and best friend Dill’s. The story follows the three as they start to recognize the roles someone can play in another person’s life, whether it be a big, intentional role or a miniscule, accidental role.  In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, empathy is learned and developed over time through discovery caused by the coming-of-age processes of oneself and of the people around them.

Scout learns to develop empathy for others after discovering more about them and their coming-of-age, and by using her understanding of her own coming-of-age. The Cunningham family is one of the poorest families in Maycomb. Jem invited one of the Cunningham boys over to their house for a meal. Walter Cunningham, who had likely never had molasses before, pours a lot of molasses over his food. Scout complains and Calpurnia lectures Scout about it because “‘There’s some folks who don’t eat like [them]... but [she] ain’t called on to contradict ‘em at the table when they don’t…’ ‘He ain’t company, Cal, he’s just a Cunningham-’... ‘Don’t matter who they are, anybody sets foot in this house’s [her] comp’ny, and don’t…let [Calpurnia] catch [her] remarkin’ on their ways like [she] was so high and mighty! [Her] folks might be better’n the Cunninghams, but it don’t count for nothin’ the way [she’s] disgracin ‘em…’” (Lee 32-33). Scout is angry about Walter using so much molasses because she doesn’t understand why he’d want so much. Scout doesn’t know much about the Cunninghams aside from the fact that they’re poor people in her community. To her, that’s all they are, and she doesn’t think much deeper about them. As far as Scout knows, the Cunninghams are able to get along with what little they have, so Walter’s just being greedy and piggish. Scout lacks empathy for Walter because she doesn’t know that he’s taking so much molasses because it’s a luxury he’s never had before, as she has yet to discover more about Walter and is unable to understand and empathize with Walter’s actions because of that. Later on in the story, Scout’s the complete opposite of her younger self. She has experienced her own coming-of-age, as well as beared witness to Jem’s and now Boo Radley’s. After walking Boo home, she stands on the porch of the Radley house, reliving her childhood but through Boo’s point of view. In doing so, she realizes “Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough” (Lee 374). Scout experiencing both her coming-of-age and Boo Radley’s coming-of-age helps her learn more about the people around her. She learns about Boo’s past experiences and applies the new knowledge to her own coming-of-age to better understand his way of life, so she is then able to empathize with him. When she was younger, Scout lacked empathy for others as she didn’t know much about them or their experiences, and didn’t know how to try to see things their way. As she grows older, Scout is able to develop and refine her empathy through learning about others from their coming-of-age stories and using her own coming-of-age to, as Atticus said, put herself in someone else’s shoes.

Similarly to Scout, Jem is also able to form and further develop empathy through the effect Mrs. Dubose’s lessons have on his own coming-of-age. Mrs. Dubose is an old woman who has been heckling Scout and Jem about Atticus defending a black man in court. Despite Atticus telling him to just be a gentleman about it, Jem gets into a fit of rage, a fit in which “He did not begin to calm down until he had cut the tops off every camellia bush Mrs. Dubose owned, until the ground was littered with green buds and leaves. He bent [Scout’s] baton against his knee, snapped it in two and threw it down. By that time [she] was shrieking, Jem yanked [her] hair, said he didn’t care, he’d do it again if he got a chance, and if [she] didn’t shut up he’d pull every hair out of [her] head. [She] didn’t shut up and he kicked [her]. [She] lost [her] balance and fell on [her] face” (Lee 137). Jem cuts up Mrs. Dubose’s prized camellias because he’s angry she’s saying mean things about Atticus. He also attacks Scout for getting upset he broke her baton. In his anger, Jem does not think about what consequences his actions will have or how Scout and Mrs. Dubose will feel because of him. Consequently, Jem is made to read to Mrs. Dubose every day in order to distract her from her withdrawal symptoms, as she is trying to become free from her morphine addiction. After her passing, Jem learns why Mrs. Dubose wanted him to read to her. Even though he no longer needs to, Jem still reads to Mrs. Dubose; or rather, Jem reads to Mrs. Dubose’s grave. Scout says this change in Jem’s behavior “...had come about in a matter of weeks. Mrs. Dubose was not cold in her grave- Jem had seemed grateful enough for [Scout’s] company when he went to read to her. Overnight, it seemed, Jem had acquired an alien set of values...” (Lee 154). Jem learns about Mrs. Dubose’s own struggles and worldviews after she has passed. Discovering those things after her death wouldn’t mean much to an apathetic person, but it changes Jem’s own feelings and views. Mrs. Dubose’s story actually resonates with Jem. So much so that, even though he had hated doing so just days before, he continues to read to Mrs. Dubose, as he feels empathetic towards her now that he understands her struggles. The lessons Jem learns from Mrs. Dubose’s story and struggles helps him with going through his own coming of age, as he is able to grow as a person, becoming more empathetic thanks to his discoveries.

Just as his friends did, Dill is able to learn how to experience true empathy for others after learning more about the people of Maycomb and their past experiences and coming-of-age stories. Dill and Jem are hanging out in their backyard when Scout insists upon knowing what they were plotting. After enough back and forth, Dill confesses that “‘[They’re] askin’ [Boo Radley] real politely to come out sometimes, and tell [them] what he does in there-[they] said [they] wouldn’t hurt him and [they’d] buy him an ice cream… It’s [Dill’s] idea. [He] figure[s] if he’d come out and sit a spell with [them] he might feel better.’ ‘How do [they] know he don’t feel good?’ ‘Well how’d [Scout] feel if [she’d] been shut up for a hundred years with nothin’ but cats to eat? [He] bet[s] he’s got a beard down to here-’” (Lee 62). Dill isn’t from Maycomb, but he visits the town and the Finch siblings every summer. Since he doesn’t know much about the town or its residents, he bases his knowledge on the people of Maycomb off of rumors and assumptions backed by no evidence. Dill assumes incorrectly that Boo Radley feels bad inside his house, that he’s forced to stay there, he eats cats, and doesn’t take care of himself. While he does put himself in Boo’s shoes a little bit, he can’t fully do it as he cannot see things from Boo’s point of view; he lacks the knowledge about Boo’s real situation that he needs. Dill’s want for Boo to come out is more because he wants to see if the rumors are true, not because he empathizes with Boo. However, as Dill spends more time in Maycomb with the Finches, he becomes more and more of a steady character in their lives. Partly because he’s so close with the Finches, he attends the Tom Robinson trial, watching it with Scout and Jem. When he sees the cross-examination of Tom Robinson he starts crying and tries to explain why to scout, telling her “‘...[he] couldn’t stand…That old Mr. Gilmer doin’ [Tom Robinson] thataway, talking so hateful to him… It was the way he said it made [him] sick, plain sick…The way that man called him ‘boy’ all the time an’ sneered at him an’ looked around at the jury every time he answered-’ ‘Well, Dill, after all he’s just a Negro.’ ‘[He] don’t care one speck. It ain’t right, somehow it ain’t right to do ‘em that way. Hasn’t anybody got any business talkin’ like that- It just makes [him] sick’” (266). Dill feels true empathy for Tom Robinson. He knows about Maycomb’s racism and Tom Robinson’s innocence. He doesn’t like how Mr. Gilmer is treating Tom Robinson because he knows Tom is an innocent man and that he’s likely been treated with such hate and prejudice his whole life. Jem is one of Dill’s closest friends, so Jem’s beliefs and behaviors will obviously rub off on him. Jem’s coming-of-age made him more empathetic towards others, which is why he knows Tom Robinson being falsely accused, and later convicted, isn’t right at all. Those empathetic and moral beliefs of Jem’s help Dill develop similar ones. Dill cries because he feels sick to his stomach about what’s happening to Tom Robinson. Dill has a physical and emotional reaction, further solidifying him as an empathetic person. Dill is able to learn how to truly feel empathy for other people once he learns about the coming-of-age experiences of those around him.